Is it possible to conserve too much water in the midst of a historic drought?

A small city near San Diego, California, apparently has, and now they've had to dump more than half a million gallons of water they'd saved after it went "bad."

The mayor of Poway, a city of just over 47,000 to the north of San Diego, that local officials had no choice but to dispose of some 550,000 gallons of water in the Blue Crystal Reservoir.

The intense heat wave that has shattered temperature records across California in recent weeks left the water unusable, Poway Mayor Steve Vaus told the TV station.

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But residents there had conserved so much water this spring -- reducing their water usage by 45 percent in May alone -- that it simply sat in the reservoir unused and became stagnant. That led to a chemical imbalance of , a commonly used disinfectant for treating drinking water.

Many local residents weren't happy with the decision. "I think it's a shame, the city should have prepared better for it," said Poway resident Helen Shelden.

Others questioned why it couldn't have been treated or used for irrigation. But Vaus said it would have required 100 or more trips by tanker truck to move the water from the reservoir tank to the Lake Poway treatment facility, a far too expensive undertaking given that the amount of water of what the city uses each year.

"It was a perfect storm of ," said Vaus, adding it pained him to order the water dumped into a nearby canyon.

“But here’s the thing,” . “I’d much rather be standing here talking about having to dump a half million gallons of water than talking about people getting sick from drinking water that wasn’t safe.”

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Historic Drought Puts California in Deep Trouble

Aerial view overlooking landscaping on April 4, 2015, in Ramona, Calif. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)