Wheatland Mayor Thomas Stanton said he is happy that five tanks have finally been moved from a long-abandoned gas station in the borough.

"I was just so happy to see that steam shovel," Stanton said Wednesday.

He told council that affiliates of the state Department of Environmental Protection removed the tanks from the property at Council and Broadway avenues on Nov. 3.

Three 1,500-gallon tanks, one 1,000-gallon tank and another 4,000-gallon tank were removed from the old station; four of them contained gasoline and one contained used motor oil, but none was full, said Freda Tarbell, DEP community relations coordinator.

"Relatively speaking, the removal went relatively fast," Stanton said.

He said thousands of dollars in back taxes are owed on the property, and it would probably cost someone more than $100,000 to buy it.

Stanton said getting the tanks removed was two years in the making.