Don't you have SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) at your work? You should calculate the required amount of a basic solution needed to neutralize the acid before you do anything.
I wish we had SOPs. And even if we did, I would question those too. See, I have come into the company and questioned a lot of what we do. This is something that nobody has done because the owner doesn't like to be questioned. He likes to rule with and iron fist because it is HIS company. He doesn't threaten/scare me because I question everything. It is my plan to establish SOPs for doing some of these acid jobs. It seems I'm the only one that gives a crap about personal safety and the effects these chemicals, if done incorrectly, has on the equipment.
It is amazing to me that I have found so many things that we have been doing wrong just by common sense and internet research.
For years they had been using a hydrometer to get percent ethylene glycol and had been reading it wrong. Nobody knew that a hydrometer measured specific gravity, only that if it floated at 30 (which was actually 1.030) that they had 30% glycol. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I had to point out that you need a chart to convert the sg to % glycol. Not to mention that it reads propylene different than ethylene, plus the effects of temperature. Luckily I have talked them into using refractometers (which can measure both glycols and compensates for temp) and doing away with the hydrometer. So maybe you can begin to see kind of what I'm up against.
Sorry, I'll step down from my soapbox now.