Lowering Eagle Lake an additional 6 feet so property owners may more easily access piers and other over-water structures will be discussed when agencies meet Tuesday, officials said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Warren County, Madison Parish, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will broach the issue during the update session, to take place at Vicksburg District offices, District 2 Supervisor William Banks said Monday.

“The Corps is trying to get all the parts together to see about going down to 70 (feet),” Banks said, adding early estimates point to a date in October to let out the excess water. Banks, whose district covers Eagle Lake, said he’ll attend the session, which is not open to the public. Fellow supervisors were noncommittal.

The lake was 84.3 feet today, showing no change since Monday. Muddy Bayou Control Structure was closed for 51 days in May and June, which raised the lake to ease pressure on the mainline levee at Buck Chute, where the Corps hurriedly shored up sand boils ahead of the Mississippi River’s historic rise to 57.1 feet May 19. Ideal stage is 76.9, where the Corps hopes to have the lake by Aug. 18.

About 600 residents of the lakeside community evacuated their homes the first week of May. County officials lifted the formal evacuation order June 28. At a community meeting July 6, residents asked Corps officials about a lower level so damage assessments to submerged lakefront property, mostly fishing docks, could become easier.

Levels were last brought down to 70 feet in the 1990s around the time the Eagle Lake boat landing was built, Corps officials said. Opinion was divided at the time on doing it again, and the lake’s six oversight entities agreed on a higher ideal stage, Vicksburg District chief of hydraulics Robert Simrall told about 150 who attended.

“Seventy is the lowest we can physically bring it to because of the mouth of Muddy Bayou at the lake itself,” Simrall said. “It’s basically 7 feet below the summer pool and 5 feet below the winter pool. I think that would pretty much get the water close to the ends of all the docks.”

Agreement by all six parties is required to lower the lake to below 76.9 feet, Simrall said.

Also on Monday, the county board voted to allow use of county-owned Eagle Lake boat landing during the First Annual Olympic Distance Gator Bait Triathlon and Third Annual Gator Bait Open Water Swim, set for Aug. 26 and 27. Supervisors tied the approval to MDWFP reopening the lake for recreational boating. The event is organized by the Vicksburg Swim Association.

Construction of a 1,700-foot berm and 30 relief wells on the mainline levee at Buck Chute is funded and scheduled to begin in the fall, Corps officials have said.

Overall funding for the Vicksburg District has been estimated to be $122.4 million for fiscal 2012, or about $15 million less than this year. Costs to fully rebuild and repair the system overseen by the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project have been pegged at between $1 billion and $2 billion.