The state of Illinois filed suit against the Dave Matthews Band yesterday (Aug. 24) for allegedly dumping up to 800 pounds of liquid human waste from a bus into the Chicago River, dousing a tour boat filled with passengers.

The lawsuit accuses the band and one of its bus drivers of violating state water pollution and public nuisance laws. It seeks $70,000 in civil penalties.

"Our driver has stated that he was not involved in this incident," a band spokesperson said in a statement, adding, the band "will continue to be cooperative in this investigation."

According to the lawsuit, on Aug. 8 a bus leased by the band was heading to a downtown hotel where members were staying. As it crossed the Kinzie Street bridge, the driver allegedly emptied the contents of the septic tank through the bridge's metal grating into the river below.

More than 100 people on an architecture tour were showered with foul-smelling waste. The attorney general's office said no one was seriously injured.

"This incident may be unique, but that does not lessen the environmental or public health risks posed by the release of at least 800 pounds of liquid human waste into a busy waterway and onto a crowded tour boat," Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement.

After the incident, the boat's captain turned the vessel around and took passengers back to the dock. Everyone received refunds, and the boat was cleaned with disinfectant.

More than 100 people on an architecture tour were showered with foul-smelling waste.

More than 100 people on an architecture tour were showered with foul-smelling waste. The attorney general's office said no one was seriously injured.

'People sat in stunned anger'

Published August 10, 2004, 1:07 PM CDT

Tribune staff reporter Brett McNeil, who filed Monday's report on the foul liquid that drenched passengers on a Chicago tour boat, was one of those passengers. Here's his first-person account.

Mostly what I remember is people gagging.

Before that, I remember our lightly lisping docent say what a beautiful day it was to catch the city's river bend reflection on the green glass of 333 W. Wacker Drive. And, really, it was: just this cool and sunny day with billowy white-gray clouds floating in a deep blue sky.

We were puttering along the Chicago River, watching paddlers from the Flatwater Classic float by, craning to see the tops of sundry architectural marvels. A perfectly polite, boringly edifying way to spend the afternoon.

And then came a gush of goop raining across most of the upper-deck viewing platform.

From where I was seated, toward the front of the boat, I couldn't see what was dumping on us but figured it was a street cleaner or maybe one of those landscaping trucks that you see spraying arcs of water into the median weed beds along Ashland Avenue.

Somehow I got just the lightest little splash on my left shirtsleeve, while people two seats away were left squeezing gritty gunk from their sticky wet hair.

We passed under the bridge and the deluge seemed to pick up, getting stronger as the passengers toward the rear of the boat approached the waterfall. The stuff splat heavily on the deck, dousing dozens of white-haired ladies and gents in nylon windbreakers.

There was confusion.

Then the smell hit us.

An unmistakable stink: porta-potty juice.

"Oh, God." The woman next to me turned and said to no one, "I had my mouth open."

Another woman, whose white shirt was soaked in what looked like dirty wiper fluid, said nothing. She just stood up and surveyed the boat, her eyes registering what she was now wearing. Reflexively, she began heaving. She looked like she was drowning.

The docent was slow to understand the magnitude of what had happened. "It appears that some water has hit the boat," he said, ridiculously.

A guy from the back of the boat shouted: "That's not water, buddy! That's urine!"

The docent, still playing dullard, asked, "Should we go back?"

By then, though, the boat's crew was rushing in with wet naps and paper towels, and soon we were turning around and plowing back to dock in high gear. Damning the no wake zone, we sent recreational boaters splashing in our wake as Chicago's Little Lady churned for home.

People wiped off their glasses, took off their coats, and sat in stunned anger.

What could you do?

I was on the boat with my girlfriend and a friend of hers visiting from out of town. They, too, managed to avoid the worst of it and we hustled down into the boat's main cabin. There we could avoid the stench up top but could clearly hear people puking in the nearby bathrooms.

We sat downstairs, hugging the air-conditioner register for stench-free air, until back at the Michigan Avenue dock. I did not begin reporting about all this until after we'd gone to the Billy Goat Tavern and washed up in the bathrooms, which was a mistake.

Because I wanted to get my hands and face and hair clean, I didn't get the name of the guy who was standing on the sidewalk when I got off the boat wearing only his waterlogged khakis. Stripped to the waist, he was actually joking with a woman airing out her wet red dress.

"I feel like I'm in a bad Ben Stiller movie," he said.

those people should sell dave matthews' poo on ebay.

*New DMB Album *
"Splash (Into Me)"

Features DMB remixes sure to move you!

Shat-illite
#1
Don't Drink the Water
So Wrong
Brown Street
#2
If I Had It All (Over Me)
Say Goodbye (to your clean linen shirt)
So Much To Spray
(The) Deed Is Done
Get In Line (there's plenty to go around)
Drive Up, Drive Out
I Did it

sorry...felt like a bit of toilet humor....

i would give SO much money to see a video of this happening

I don't know if the specific event was caught on tape, but I could direct you to some related internet sites. However, it will cost you a pretty penny. Unless you want to use my password.

i walked over that very bridge while i was in chicago a couple of days ago...it was a big story up there. the cover of redeye had dave on the cover with the caption "party pooper". i overheard people talking about it a couple of times and i got the distinct impression that the entire city was really pissed off, not just the ones that got pissed on. it was a shitty thing to have done...

But seriously, why is everyone mad at Dave Matthews himself?