The waters of Cape Cod Bay come for a large brown house on the edge of a sandy mass above the beach.
That's when's the question?
Erosion marched to concrete scaffolding of the multi-million dollar home overlooking the bay.
The huge sliding door, which opened on a wide deck with a hot tub, is now barricaded with thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping into the 25-foot beach or falling onto the beach below.
The owner knew that.
He removed the deck and other parts of the house, including the small tower that had a main bedroom before he stopped working and fell into a standoff with the town.
His lawyers say he sold the location to a rescue company, but that he doesn't pay for the job.
Wellfleet officials are worried that the collapse of the house will damage the delicate beds at the port.
If the report commissioned by the town's project is nothing done, the 5,100-square-foot home will fall into the bay within three years.
That particular fate reminds us of the vulnerability of buildings along the Cape, where sea level rise has been accelerating in recent years thanks to climate change.
“So the Cape has always been moving,” said John Cumbler, a retired environmental history professor who also works for the Wellfleet Conservation Board. “The sand is moving.”
The history of the house
The house was built in 2010 on Cape Cod, on the bay side of the peninsula.
The original owners, Mark and Barbara Brush, sought permission from the committee in 2018, constructed a 241-foot wide seawall to prevent erosion.
Seven members of the committee (all volunteers) refused the embankment on the grounds that it could have an unintended effect on the way beaches and bays carry nutrients.
They also questioned whether it would save the house.
This property is located within the Cape Cod National Coast. The National Coast Administration supported Seawall's denial due to “important locations” within the coastal and well port area, including key habitats and manipulation of precious shellfish.
Brush sued his denial in state district court and lost.
An appeal to the state's superior court is pending.
Attorney John Bonoy, a New York man, bought the house in 2022 for $5.5 million. Bonomi's lawyer declined to comment on the story.
The threat to the bay and oyster beds
Last year, Wellfleet's report by Woods Hole Marine Association coastal grants expert Brian McCormack estimated that bluffs are eroding at a rate of 3.8 to 5.6 feet a year. It's there.
The report estimated the collapse in a maximum of three years, but perhaps faster.
The report said the collapse could send debris to the well net port. There, it takes two to three years for the oyster of the same name in the town, well known to shellfish lovers.
“There's a lot of fiberglass insulation in the house, and it has toxic substances,” Kambler said. “If that toxic substance enters a well's port, it could put the oyster industry in Wellfleet, a major industry outside of tourism, at risk if the current is where it robs it.”
I support what to do at home
“I'm back in October and said yes, we understand that our home is at risk of falling into the ocean. What will we do at home by January?” I plan for it,” Kambler said. “We asked for a plan to remove it from danger.”
The plan was to be presented at the committee's January meeting.
But Tom Moore, Bonomi's lawyer, wrote to town in December, saying that Bonomi sold the house to CQN Salvage, the company that was founded in October.
Moore wrote that the town “have notices to take wise steps to prevent collapse of the embankments and other consequences of further erosion.” CQN Salvage is ready to work with the town in such an effort, but does not provide funding. ”
It is not clear who owns CQN Salvage.
New York State Founding Records do not list officials.
Moore refused to speak to the Associated Press.
At a meeting on Jan. 15, Moore appeared on the video and told the committee that the “minimum estimate” for removing the house is at least $1 million.
“So you're going to do nothing and make it fall into the water?” asked Moore, town conservation agent.
“I'm going to ask you not to fall into the water,” replied Moore.
The committee voted to extend the deadline to comply with the enforcement order until June 1st.
McKenna also noted at the meeting that actions to the property have not yet been transferred.
wellfleet is left to wait
For now, the town is simply left to look at the house.
When the AP visited the site recently, he saw a 20 mph wind hitting the mass and cheating the sand.
The nearby sea level in Falmouth has risen 11 inches over the past 90 years, but the pace is accelerating.
AP analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that between 1995 and 2024, sea levels around Cape Cod were rising at an annual rate of 0.16 inches faster than in the previous 30 years.
McCormack, a Woods Hole expert who prepared the town's report, said it would be difficult to attribute erosion to climate change and sea level rise with a single property.
And he said Cape Cod had been eroded “for tens of thousands of years.”
However, he said that Bluff has retreated 54 feet since 2014, and that erosion rates over the past decade are “over the long-term rates announced by the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management.”
