The first time the Dave Matthews Band swung through the Chicago area during the summer of 2004, the group played a sold-out, 2½-hour set at the Tweeter Center (now Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre) in Tinley Park.
“Although his whiny high notes often sounded like air seeping from a leaky mattress, Matthews punctuated his springy vocals with scat phrases and mumbles that had female fans shrieking,” Bob Gendron wrote about the performance.
The band’s return visit on Aug. 8, 2004, would also elicit shrieking — but not for its music.
What happened on — and under — the Kinzie Street Bridge on the North Branch of the Chicago River 20 years ago is now local lore. Here’s how the Tribune reported the infamous “bus incident.”
Aug. 8, 2004: Sightseers drenched by a ‘brownish-yellow’ slurry
People enjoying one of the city’s top tourist attractions, the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s river cruise aboard Chicago’s Little Lady, took a direct hit when a luxury coach stopped on the Kinzie Street Bridge and expelled 800 pounds of liquid lavatory waste just as the tour boat passed below it. The substance oozed through the bridge’s metal grating, dousing two-thirds of the vessel’s 120 passengers with a foul-smelling, brownish-yellow slurry that ruined their clothes and made several of them sick. Five people were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for testing. All 120 passengers were given refunds on their $25 tickets.
Witnesses told police they saw a long black tour bus dump the liquid waste. One witness gave Chicago police an Oregon license plate number that belonged to the 2003 Monaco Royale Coach driven by Jerry Fitzpatrick, who had been Matthews’ tour bus driver for three years at the time.
Fitzpatrick confirmed he was in Chicago with Matthews, whose band played the second of two shows at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin later that night. But the driver said he was parked in front of The Peninsula, 108 E. Superior St., when the waste rained down from the bridge several blocks away.
“There is no way I could be responsible for that. I haven’t emptied the tank for days. Besides, we are very cautious about how we do that sort of thing,” Fitzpatrick told the Tribune from downstate Effingham. “This band is very environmentally conscious.”
To bolster his case, Fitzpatrick coaxed Sgt. Paul Gardner of the Effingham Police Department to inspect the bus. He then gave Gardner his cell phone to tell a reporter that the tank was nearly full.
“One of the strangest requests I’ve ever had, that’s for sure,” Gardner said.
A publicist for the band issued a statement the next night saying the group’s management had “determined that all of the buses on our tour were parked at the time of this incident.”
Chicago police, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago all began investigations.
Aug. 24, 2004: ‘This act was not only offensive, it was illegal’
After a two-week investigation into the incident that prompted outrage from Chicago’s mayor and snickering from late-night television hosts, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan accused the band and driver Stefan A. Wohl of illegally dumping the foul-smelling muck into the river and creating a public nuisance. A three-count civil complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, sought $70,000 in fines and an evaluation of the band’s waste disposal practices.
Surveillance cameras at neighborhood businesses helped Madigan’s investigators and Chicago police detectives trace the bus to Wohl, a Texas man who was identified in the complaint as one of five drivers for the Dave Matthews Band, authorities said.
Wohl was driving to pick up a band member at a Michigan Avenue hotel when the bus crossed the Kinzie Street bridge, according to the three-count civil complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court.
“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,” Madigan said in a statement. “This situation clearly demonstrates the environmental and public health problems that can occur when laws are ignored. This act was not only offensive, it was illegal.”
Nancy Todor, an Elmhurst resident whose 43rd birthday was ruined when she got caught in the rain of waste, said a $70,000 fine seemed like an inadequate punishment for the band. In November 2004, Todor became the first boat passenger to file a lawsuit against the band.
Perhaps, she said, Matthews should perform a concert for the sullied boat customers.
Holly Agra, co-owner of the tour boat, said the incident was an abrupt departure from the usual glowing media coverage of one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions.
“We can’t afford to have our image damaged,” Agra said recently. “We don’t want this sticking on us for the rest of our careers.”
Aug. 25, 2004: ‘Clearly, this is the bus that discharged that fluid’
Chicago police shared video captured by a security camera at the East Bank Club, the time-stamped image shows a black and silver bus crossing the Kinzie Street bridge at 1:18 p.m. Aug. 8, 2004. The camera did not record the soaking. But the videotape showed that no other bus crossed the bridge for 15 minutes before or after, Belmont Area Cmdr. Michael Chasen said during the news conference.
“Clearly, this is the bus that discharged that fluid,” Chasen said.
Mayor Richard M. Daley said city officials also could file criminal charges, though the offense likely would be considered a misdemeanor.
“The action of illegally dumping in the Chicago River is absolutely unacceptable,” said Daley, who nonetheless described the rock group as a “very good band.”
Days later, the band responded to the allegations by stating it had cooperated fully with Chicago authorities, providing access to drivers and tour management, license plate numbers for the five tour buses and photographs, and offering to supply DNA evidence to determine if the group is responsible. Two months after that, the band donated $50,000 each to Friends of the Chicago River and the Chicago Park District.
March 9, 2005: Driver pleads guilty
Two months after he was charged with reckless conduct and discharge of contaminants to cause water pollution, Wohl pleaded guilty to emptying his bus’s septic tank over the Chicago River. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation, 150 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine, which would be donated to the Friends of the Chicago River.
Speaking after the hearing, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Egan, who negotiated the plea deal, said he was satisfied with Wohl’s punishment even though it did not include jail time.
“I have been in touch with many of the people who were on the boat, and none of them suffered any lasting health effects,” Egan said, though many threw out the clothing they were wearing that day and said their cars became soiled on their drive home.
April 29, 2005: ‘Foul incident’ settled
About a month before the band performed in Chicago again, the Dave Matthews Band agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a state lawsuit.
The fine would go into a fund for environmental education projects. The group also agreed to keep records for the next five years detailing where and when the waste tanks on its tour buses are emptied while in Illinois.
In return, the band was allowed to avoid admitting guilt in court. And it won a provision intended to make it more difficult for the tour boat operator and at least one passenger on the ill-fated cruise to use the settlement in their own lawsuits against the band.
“This settlement is reasonable and appropriate given the public and environmental health threats caused by this foul incident,” Madigan said in a statement.
A new Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream featured packaging encouraging fans to “lick global warming.”
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