Storms, Sewers and Silence: The Hidden Pressures Holding Back River Recovery | WEBINAR

Hosted by the CIWEM Central Southern branch

Event description

England’s rivers face pressure from multiple pollution pathways — but are we focusing our efforts in the right places? In this webinar, Jed Ramsay and Jo Bradley will examine the competing challenges of wastewater infrastructure, storm overflows and highway runoff, highlighting the huge scale and timescale of investment needed.

Aimed at practitioners, regulators and consultants, the webinar offers evidence based insights and honest discussion about what really drives river health outcomes. Attendees will gain practical understanding to support better decision making in their own projects and catchments.

Who should attend this webinar

• CIWEM members and non-members
• Environmental and water industry professionals
• Regulators and policy professionals
• Local Authority and highways professionals
• Those with an interest in the environmental quality

Why should you attend this webinar

• Gain evidence based insights into the relative impacts of wastewater infrastructure, storm overflows and highway runoff on river health
• Understand where investment and intervention can deliver the greatest environmental benefit
• Learn from experts about the scale, timescales and practical challenges of improving England's rivers
• Take away practical approaches to support better catchment decision making processes in your own projects
• Opportunity to network and gain CPD

Are you a CIWEM member? Want to find out more?

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About the speaker(s) and chair

Jed Ramsay | Project Manager, Wastewater | Thames Water

Jed Ramsay is a Chartered Project Manager with over 20 years’ experience delivering complex water and environmental projects. Currently leading wastewater infrastructure upgrades at Thames Water, Jed specialises in improving asset resilience and reducing environmental impact through innovative, sustainable solutions.

His work focuses on tackling industry challenges such as storm overflows and river health, ensuring projects deliver measurable benefits for communities and ecosystems. Jed is a Fellow and Chartered Member of CIWEM (FCIWEM, CWEM) and brings a unique blend of technical expertise and strategic leadership to every project.Passionate about environmental improvement, Jed advocates for practical approaches that align infrastructure investment with regulatory commitments, helping the sector achieve long-term resilience and ecological outcomes.

Jo Bradley | UK Director of Operations | Storm Shepherds

Jo Bradley has worked in the field of pollution control for over 30 years. She was at the Environment Agency for much of that time, working with various industrial sectors to identify pollution control and prevention best practice. In recent years, she has focused on urban pollution, particularly pollution from highways. She joined the charity Stormwater Shepherds UK in 2000, and she has been doing small amounts of research to provide data and pictures which allow her to tell the story of urban pollution, and she uses that content and knowledge to deliver many presentations, and to publish guidance and information. She also meets with highway drainage professionals, regulators and highway operators to update them on her findings.

In 2024 in her role at Stormwater Shepherds, Jo worked with CIWEM to produce the Highway runoff and the water environment report, which shines a light on the toxic cocktail of pollutants that runs off the UK’s road network and into our rivers and water sources every time it rains.

Booking and joining information

This event is open to members and non-members of CIWEM. The webinar is hosted on the Zoom platform and will be recorded.

Please register your place by clicking on the registration button. Non-members who have not registered for the CIWEM system can create an account on the booking page in order to reserve their place. This should not take more than two minutes.

If you have any questions about your booking or would like to cancel your attendance, please contact branches@ciwem.org.

Please note that registrations will close at 09:00 on the day of the event. If you have not registered before that time, unfortunately we cannot add you to the event.

If you have any queries about this talk, please contact Charlotte Metcalfe at charlotte.metcalfe@stantec.com.