Members of the committee

Member - Sarah Belton

Sarah is Founder of Nutrient Neutral who for the past 3 to 4 years has supported developers, local authorities and landowners in finding solutions to the issue of nutrient neutrality across England and Wales.
Sarah has an MSc in hydrogeology, is a self-confessed “nutrient nerd” and has 15+ years’ experience in environmental consultancy, where she latterly specialised in water quality and agriculture.
Wetlands are, and will be, a significant contributor to resolving nutrient neutrality and improving water quality in general. Wetland engineering is a profession now in high demand. Sarah believes there a massive opportunity raise the profile of the CWA, promote best practice and share knowledge with local authorities, technical professionals, landowners/ farmers, government bodies and NGO’s and is keen to help with that.

Sarah joined the committee in 2023.

Treasurer – ANDY FREEMAN

Andy is currently working as a project Scientist for ARM Group Ltd, a company that supplies design construction and maintenance services for constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment. Having developed a passion for the science underpinning wastewater treatment using constructed wetlands, Andy’s specific area of expertise is the monitoring, characterisation and treatment of de-icer contaminated stormwater run-off from airports, which was the topic of his PhD that he successfully defended in 2016. Andy has presented research in the UK and Internationally and published peer reviewed journals within Science of the Total Environment, Environmental Technology and Innovation and Water Science and Technology.  Andy joined the CWA committee in 2018 and was elected treasurer in 2019.

Member – CAT McILWRAITH

Cat is a GIS analyst for the Rivers Trust. The Rivers Trust is the umbrella organisation for 60 local member Trusts. It is the only group of environmental charities in the UK and Ireland dedicated to protecting and improving river environments for the benefit of people and wildlife.

Cat served on the committee between 2014-2017 and was re-elected in 2019.

Member – MATTHEW SIMPSON

Matthew is a Director of 35percent, a consultancy dedicated to all aspects of wetland design and management, and has extensive experience in water, wetland and biodiversity assessment and management. Matthew is responsible for developing, managing and reporting on a range of projects and providing specialist eco-hydrological, wetland restoration, creation and wetland management advice. His PhD focused on developing a practical classification and functional evaluation tool for European wetland ecosystems. Matthew has been on the committee since 2011. 

Chair – GABRIELA DOTRO

Member – DAN ROBERTS

Dan works as a project manager for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust raising the profile of treatment wetlands and the multiple benefits they provide amongst a wide range of stakeholders.
Dan is a biogeochemist, land adviser and ecologist who has 10 years of experience shared between academia and practice. He has worked on the development of a variety of land management schemes including ELMS, hosted catchment partnerships, and has experience in delivery of wetland creation. He has worked in partnership with the water industry as well as land managers to achieve positive outcomes and is currently working on blended-finance mechanisms and investment in integrated nature-based solutions.
Dan is a proactive advocate of broadening the CWA's engaged audiences and wishes to drive the development of capacity and skills within the Wetland sector. Dan is passionate about using evidence, education and policy to ensure Constructed Treatment Wetlands become a default treatment option where appropriate across the UK (and beyond), and will try to bring as many people as possible together to see this happen.

Dan joined the committee in 2023.

Member – JOHN WILLIAMS

John is Professor of Environmental Technology in the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying at the University of Portsmouth.  He arrived in Portsmouth in 1988 to undertake a PhD on nitrogen cycling and pathogen removal in field scale Gravel Bed Hydroponic constructed wetlands in the UK and Egypt.  He has since worked on a range of constructed wetland projects in the UK and overseas.  In recent years his work has focused on pollutant removal in vegetated Sustainable Drainage systems. John is the academic lead for the University's Environmental Technology Field Station based at an operational sewage works which hosts an Innovation Hub for wastewater technologies in collaboration with Southern Water. John was elected to the CWA Committee in 2019.

Secretary - LUCY CROCKFORD

Lucy is a Senior Lecturer in Soil and Water Management at Harper Adams University with a wide range of research interests ranging across environmental chemistry, physics and engineering. Her primary degree was in Environmental Science at NUI, Galway (2006), with an MSc in Environmental Engineering at Queen's University Belfast (2010), a couple of years after some experience in industry. Her PhD research in Geography at the University of Dublin, Trinity College (2015), determined the application of high temporal resolution data in the management of eutrophic water bodies in agricultural catchments.

Lucy's research at Harper Adams University is primarily in the application of organic amendments to soils and the impact on soil structure and water movement dynamics - as well as the resulting water quality. The role of constructed wetlands and more natural methods of water treatment are a developing area at the university. She is also very interested in catchments with high sediment movement and looking to expand her knowledge in this area particularly into Africa and small holding farming.

Lucy joined the committee in 2021.