The MTA is ramping up its warnings about subway flooding.

During their October board meeting Wednesday, transit officials laid out new resiliency work, but also pointed a finger at the city's Department of Environmental Protection for not doing enough on the streets above to keep water out of the system. The DEP is pushing back.

For riders, the agency blame game doesn't change the commute they potentially face Thursday, with heavy rain expected throughout the day.

Transit leaders accuse DEP of not moving fast enough on upgrades

The newest round of so-called resiliency work is part of the MTA's 10-step roadmap that officials say is underway in preventing dramatic scenes like those back in July, when heavy rain swept through the area.

"There are some neighborhoods where the combination of ... insufficient sewer capacity means that water is getting both into the vents, up on the sidewalk and into the vents, and also the sewer system," MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said.

MTA officials say the efforts are costing the transit agency roughly $1.5 billion and it can't be done alone.

Transit leaders publicly blamed the city's DEP, accusing it of not moving fast enough on surface-level drainage upgrades and saying the subway will keep flooding as long as sewers and catch basins above it are overwhelmed.

DEP stresses need for funding

CBS News New York transportation reporter Elijah Westbrook asked officials when they last spoke to the DEP commissioner about those concerns and how they responded.

"We are in communication constantly with the DEP team," Lieber said.

"I spoke to the COO of DEP yesterday. We talk all the time. We're coordinated. And there are long-term actions that we need the city to take," said MTA President of Construction and Development Jamie Torres-Springer.

The bottom line is the MTA insists it can only defend the system from the inside out.

In a statement, the DEP pushed back, writing, in part, "We continue to work collaboratively with the MTA to address flooding, but they need to realize that additional funding requires water rates to go up for all New Yorkers. We also need the MTA to help us accelerate stormwater projects that cross MTA facilities."

The DEP also said the state needs to find ways to fund these projects, adding that revenue from water bills is how the DEP funds sewer upgrades.