re: Whatever happened to ramifications of Mars ice discovery
Ground ice is of unknown distributuon, association and composition. You would not want to commit to using it until these parameters were known and a demonstrated technology existed for extracting it.
A better source of water is the atmosphere, which can yield modest amounts of water with the right equipment. It makes a lot of sense if you are going to process large quantities of atmosphere for ISPP anyway. See http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ISRU-II-97/pdf/9031.pdf and http://www.aa.washington.edu/research/ISRU/mars_society_wavar.pdf
Jon