Turbidity is a numeric criteria used to assess the water quality condition of Minnesota streams; however turbidity does not equal suspended inorganic sediment. Regions with lacustrine geology tend to have relatively high stream turbidity because channels are formed in fine-grained silts and clays. When Minnesota’s numeric water quality criteria for turbidity is exceeded, then the Clean Water Act requires the development of a total maximum daily load (TMDL). However, regions underlain with fine-grained lacustrine deposits yield large natural background loads of suspended inorganic sediment that remain suspended, and transported downstream. Mass wasting of cohesive sediment into the Nemadji River has been a historic process driving exceedance of numeric water quality standards. Hydrogeologic pathways were evaluated along with 19 geomorphic metrics, collected at 15 sites with varying drainage areas in the upper Nemadji River basin, northeastern Minnesota. Regression results suggest an important spatial scale threshold exists at 2 km² for D₈₄/mean bankfull channel depth and channel slope. Principal components analysis (PCA) found over 98 % of the variance between sites could be explained by 5 shape metrics: bankfull channel width, depth, maximum depth, cross-sectional area, and valley beltwidth. An erosion risk matrix was developed using a ratio of total channel boundary shear stress/bankfull channel boundary shear stress (τ_t/τ_bf), and a ratio of valley beltwidth/floodprone channel width. Sinuosity (related to channel slope and beltwidth), and the τ_t/τ_bf ratio were the best predictors of erosion risk using a stepwise linear regression model. The Nemadji River basin lacked sufficient coarse-grained material in the clayey lacustrine core region to provide channel evolutionary aggradation; sediment aggradation is important for hydraulic continuity.