River chief system is a water governance strategy from local innovative practice to national will, which demonstrates the performance of water pollution governance. At present, the governance mechanism of river chief system shows generalization trend. Many local governments regard such kind of governance model as a general way to solve sharp contradictions and obstacles to institutional mechanisms and introduce many similar systems along the track of river chief system. Such phenomenon results from the demonstration function of river chief system itself, the failure of the conventional governance mechanism, the path dependence of governmentled governance model and the demands for performance growth of local governments. The generalization of governance mechanism needs to be examined. It may lead to the risks of increasing burden on grassroots level, the neglect of public power, the involution of governance performance and the effect of the “orange change with their environment”. Therefore, in modern social governance, it is necessary to activate social forces and make the public play the main role in it. As far as the government system itself is concerned, it is compulsory to strengthen the due diligence consciousness of the bureaucratic departments and enhance their governance ability through institutional mechanism innovation.