A big, brown house teeters on a bluff (cliff) in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for it. Will the house topple? 

It’s not a question of if, actually. It’s a question of when. 

The home is worth millions of dollars. But erosion has marched right up to its doors. (Erosion is the wearing away of land by water and wind.) Massive sliding doors once opened onto a wide deck with a hot tub. Now wooden slats barricade the doors. This protects anyone from falling 25 feet to the beach below. 

The former owner knew the house was in trouble. He removed the deck and other parts of the house. Then he stopped working on the place. He sold it to a salvage company. 

What will happen when the house falls? This question matters for the current owner. But it matters for others too. Farmers grow New England’s prized oysters in the harbor below. The home’s collapse could damage the oyster beds, which bring money to the community. 

Officials guess the home will fall into the bay within three years. That’s 5,100 square feet worth of debris hitting the water.

John Cumbler is a retired environmental history professor. He also works with Wellfleet’s conservation group. He says the erosion is no surprise. “The cape has always been moving. The sand is moving.”

For now, town officials are in a standoff with the salvage company. Each group wants the other to solve the problem. Townspeople just watch the house and wait. 

“The house has a lot of fiberglass insulation in it. It has toxic material in it,” Mr. Cumbler says. “If that toxic material gets into Wellfleet Harbor, which is where the currents will take it, it could endanger the oyster industry in Wellfleet.”

Meanwhile, 20-mile-per-hour winds continue to hit the bluffs. Sand trickles down, making the house less stable by the day.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. — Matthew 7:26