It think it's funny that the liquid water at the bottom is treated as precious, but no one cares about the huge amount solid "water" above it.
In Lake Vostok's case, the first reports were in 1999,[1] and yeast and fungi have been isolatef from ice cores collected at depths more than 3500 m below the surface.[2] Exciting stuff, no?
*: Posting from school, so sorry if these aren't free.
[1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/286/5447/2144.short
[2]: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/279/1728/474....