I can't believe there isn't a better solution than what is being provided here for a chemical accident like this. Is it wrong to suggest the emergency response here borderlines on ineptness? How about investing in minutemen 'crack' chemical spill teams instead of SWAT? Let's equip them with 'military' style armaments for neutralizing hazardous spills. Yes, there's a little 'play' on the wording here. From all the hazardous spills of late, it sounds like its time has come for every city to have a well developed minuteman chemical response teams.

Why isn't a process for neutralizing/diluting the nitric acid being used here? Nitric acid is H3NO and as it decomposes gives off a brownish yellowish color. You can see the release of nitric acid by the color of the cloud. Nitric Acid decomposes into water, nitrogen dioxide, and oxygen. This is the brownish yellow you see coming from the truck and is evidence the nitric acid is decomposing (albeit, at a slow rate). I'm aware of the very caustic characteristic nitric acid has, especially if it is spilled on your skin. The procedure is to immediately wash it off with running water. This dilutes and removes the nitric acid. The nitric acid that has penetrated the skin can be neutralized with the use of baking soda. The combination will stop its strong oxidizing process.

I would think a similar mindset could be used for the AZ accident. Water would dilute it and an alkali compound of some sort like baking soda would neutralize it. Calcium hydroxide (slag lime) is another possibility. The process for neutralizing the nitric acid in the container would be to pump calcium hydroxide into the container using a boom. Even an ammonia/compound could be used to neutralize the nitric acid and would form a resultant ammonium nitrate. Both these are readily available and inexpensive.

Instead, it appears they are allowing it to slowly boil off, while traffic is redirected, an advisory to stay in doors and turning off air conditioners. Houses are not hermetically sealed and are designed to circulate air from the outside. Turning off air conditioners hardly helps a damn thing. The solution is to immediately contain the hazard. IMHO, the advice being given is bordering on incompetence.