LOS ANGELES — Gerry Klatt gazes across the beach toward a peaceful bay at Cabrillo Beach, seemingly the perfect place for his daily dip. But he won’t swim there.

Instead, Klatt braves the pounding waves about 100 yards away on the side of the beach exposed to open ocean where he believes the seawater is cleaner.

As it turns out, on many days he’d be right. The inner side of Cabrillo Beach in Los Angeles’ port town of San Pedro leads the list of California beaches that saw the highest percentage of days with a bacteria count deemed potentially dangerous. It’s part of a new report released Tuesday that lists the most troubled beaches in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states.

The study looked at the number of days in 2018 that the water had bacteria counts exceeding Environmental Protection Agency standards. The Environment America Research and Policy Center report says the high…