Is this normal behavior for Edge?    If I open Edge, or accidentally even open the taskbar news panel,  Edge populates itself in many iterations in Task Master.  Then If I don't deal with it right away, I'll notice my machine starts loading pages slower and slower. I have to manual  end the tasks.  Shouldn't this just happen automatically when you close the application?  Its been really annoying to the point where I refuse to use Edge browser for anything anymore.

I currently have 8 Microsoft Edge Dev tabs open. As you can see in the image linked below on OneDrive, there are 30 processes listed.  The processes include the open tabs, the installed extensions and other features of Microsoft Edge, such as the side bar and news panel, which I don't use. Note that all of those processes are using only 0.6% CPU and power usage is shown as "Very low".

Edge Task Manager

If your problem is that EDGE continues to show up (and "run") in task manager AFTER CLOSING IT, try the following:
Click on the 3-dots at the far-right of the address bar -- then click on SETTINGS.
Under Settings (Left-hand column), search for background extensions
Move the slider for "Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed" to the LEFT, to disable this option.  (Color changes from blue to white, with dot moving from right to left.)
Close Edge,and see if this makes a difference.

Thankyou! 

That was exactly the problem  And it looks like working that switch solved it.    No leftover instances of Edge running once I close the browser now.

Glad to have helped.