Managing the acute problem of environmental deterioration due to the industrialization of modern China is necessary. Using three cases from a theoretical perspective of procedure-structure, this study explored how en-vironmental deterioration is governed in three circumstances. Research findings revealed that the pattern to treat the worsening environment is associated closely with individual-specific circumstances, and thus three patterns of governance are developed: bureaucratic, contractual, and network-based cooperatives. The cases and the results are described the advantages and disadvantages of these models are discussed. Suggestions on how to more effectively manage these urgent problems are as follows: first, the governance must fit the cir-cumstance, namely, its physical, biological, and social attributes; second, the regulations and conditions re-garding the government-dominated pattern are came up from the perspective of mega-governance, mutual trust contracts, benefit sharing, and social capital; and third, the government should abandon the pattern based on the single subject and adopt a plural subject governance model to integrate all the relevant forces to facilitate the attainment of benign environmental governance.